INTERNATIONAL TRADE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 133, 8 June 1925, Page 4

INTERNATIONAL TRADE.

CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE,

MEET IX BRUSSELS.

The third biennial congress of the International Chamber of Commerce opens in ISrussels on June '21. Created in 1020. the chamber has Titi economic associations as members. and its avowed purpose is to create more friendly relations between business men of the world. Tlie general purpose of the forthcoming conference is to study' the prob--Icm of economic restoration. The agenda paper also includes a great variety of special problems. The Congress itself will he presided over by M. Despret. vicechairman, and chairman of the Hoard of the Hank of Brussels. Tlie question of economic restoration will be dealt witli in plenary sessions, while special committees will discuss minor problems under the three heads—-finance, industry and trade, and transportation. Mr. R. F. Grant, president of the Cnited States Chamber, will preside over the finance group: M. 11. Duchemin. president of the "Cnion ties Industries Chimiques," over the industry and trade group; Sir Arthur Balfour, chairman of the British Government Committee on foreign trade, over tlie transport group, and Mr. J. Syz, president of the International Association of Cotton Spinners, over the resolutions committee. The Home Congress, held in 102.'{, discussed reparations, inter-allied debts, inflation, international credits and exchange. The chamber claims that its efforts led to the Dnwes Plan, since it conceived the idea of solving the reparation problem on n practical commercial basis. The Brussels congress will have to consider a special problem arising from the adoption of the Dawes Plan. How can the large amounts payable in reparations be transferred from one country to another without clangoring either the currency of the debtor country or the industry and trade of the creditor countries. This problem will also arise in connection with settlement of interallied debts. That tho Dawes Committee were aware of the problem is evident from the establishment rti the special Transfer Committee. The chamber now proposes, without interfering with that committee's functions, to investigate the problem itself. To this end a special committee of 25 members, under tlie presidency of Mr. F. J. Kent, vice-president of the Bankers' Trust Co.. Xew York, is at present studying the question as it affects business. Special committees will discuss the various minor problems, and submit their conclusions to the Congress in the form of draft resolutions. Tho question of taxation of the same income of property in two or more different countries will be discussed. Ways and means of increasing the international use of cheques will be sought. Improvements to the system of protection of industrial property, especially in connection with unfair competition, will be considered. Suggested reforms which will facilitate the enforcement of foreign juderments, and the settlement of the affairs of bankrupt persons with foreign interests will be discussed. A fixed definition of "commercial shipment" in connection with postal packages, and a fixed date for Easter, will he sought.